A PATRONAGE INCENTIVE AWARD SYSTEM INCORPORATING RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS AND METHOD THEREOF

摘要

A patronage incentive system is disclosed in which a monetary award is made to a customer's retirement account as incentive for the customer to participate in a transaction with the sponsor for the sponsor's goods or services. The system includes a means for identifying the customer (12), a means for inputting (18) the identification information (14) and other information about the transaction (16) into a computer data storage (20), a computer data processing device (22) which uses a software program (24) along with the transactional information (16) to calculate an incentive award amount (25), a means for transferring the monetary funds (28) equal to the incentive award amount (25) from an incentive award pool (26) to the customer's retirement account (30), and a means of reporting (36) the incentive award (25) amount to the customer and to the sponsor. A method of conducting a patronage incentive system of the present invention is also disclosed comprising the steps of inputting transactional information (16) into a computer data storage device (20), calculating the incentive award amount (25) through the use of a computer data processing device (22), transferring monetary funds equal to the incentive award amount (25) from an incentive award pool (26) to the customer's retirement account (30), and reporting the incentive award amount (25) to the customer and to the sponsor.